Mulched Paths - Oh Yes!
The first permaculture book I read was "The Permaculture Home Garden" by Linda Woodrow. Back in mumblemumble 1997. I read it from cover to cover one cold weekend in bed with my first baby, those were the days. I gobbled it up. Linda made so much sense.
One thing I acted on immediately was mulched paths. What a revelation! I've been mulching my paths ever since, with whatever woody mulch I can get my hands on.
Mulch keeps weeds and grass at bay, and improves the soil in your paths which in turn improves the soil in your beds. When the soil in your paths is doing well, you've got room to spread your wings should you wish to fit another row of crop in - as long as you don't have any hard edges around your beds that is. Yip the benefits are far reaching.
How to create a mulched path
Lay cardboard or thick wet newspaper on top of the grass. If you have pernicious weeds, grub them out first.
Be pernickety with your cardboard laying - leave no gaps and go right to edges. Cover deeply in mixed woody mulch or sawdust.
The mulch mats down beautifully. Sure it's a bit fluffy when it goes on, but a bit of ironing with the wheelbarrow or stomping feet = sorted! And yes, it'll attach to your boots until it settles in - nothing a stamp on the grass wont sort out.
Top the mulch up as required - to that end I recommend always having a pile of woody mulch on the go. It improves with age, becoming riddled with fungal threads. Best resource ever.
Plan Your Paths
Paths make up a big chunk of your garden, yet they don't usually factor into the planning process. They should! What a difference when your garden flows naturally, tracking along your daily routes from house to greenhouse to chooks to garden to driveway - look for the wear in the grass and make your paths there. And make them curved - no one turns a corner in a right angle!
When creating paths in the vegie garden, keep them as narrow as you can to give the most space to the beds, but not too narrow that they're uncomfortable.
I like a central wheelbarrow path with narrow walking paths coming off it.
The joy of mulched paths is their flexibilty - it's super easy to change them up and turn path into bed, or vice versa.